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We were fortunate to have the opportunity to sit beneath these trees and receive this Guru Upaniṣad. "Upaniṣad" means "upa," near, and "śad," to listen—to listen to the truth from the master. "Śad" can also mean disciple. It is the disciple who sits near the master and listens to wisdom. This is how the Upaniṣads came to be; various ṛṣis imparted wisdom to their disciples, and thus the different Upaniṣads were recorded. Now, it depends on how much one receives. Imagine a river flowing. People must go and fetch water. Everyone returns with a different quantity of water, according to the size of their vessel. Though everyone was near the river, the river did not refuse anyone, nor did it restrict how much water they could take. Everyone had the freedom to take as much as they wanted. Some took none, some came empty-handed, and some spilled it on the way. This river represents the Guruvākya, the teachings of the master. The satsaṅg is the river, and all satsaṅgīs, the listeners and aspirants, are those who come to fetch this water—the water of knowledge. The vessel is your consciousness, your memory, your heart. How much you can digest, how much you can carry with you—that is what matters. This is the Guru Upaniṣad we are engaged in. Most Upaniṣads were also spoken or composed beneath fine trees in the forest, where a brahmaniṣṭha and śrotriya—the master or guru—would speak. Brahmaniṣṭha is the knower, the seer of Brahman. Śrotriya is one who can speak and inspire you. That is very important. In recent days, we have had very divine satsaṅgs. Those with a pure heart and pure consciousness received more. Those harboring doubts and complexes received nothing. Some expect something other than wisdom, so it is different for them. As it is said: "Upar se bhare, niche se jhare, guru mahārāj uska kya kare." You fill it from the top, but it leaks from the bottom—what can the master do? First, you must prepare the vessel so it can hold the wisdom. If your pot is dirty and you put something clean inside, it too will become dirty. The dirty parts are jealousy, negative thinking, doubt, greediness—all these negative qualities are the dirt. Such dirty vessels belong to those with negative characteristics, doubt, and a curious, distorted nature. You tell them something good, but it is understood badly. If you try to explain, it is misunderstood. Yesterday I said: you can feed a snake milk and honey, yet it will still produce poison. However much love and wisdom you give, it will be converted into a negative quality. And the snake itself suffers; it does not have a good or happy life. A snake has no limbs—no ears to hear, no hands, no legs. It only has a mouth and two eyes. Yet it struggles to survive, knowing this life is not easy. That is its punishment. It means the soul is traveling in a lower form of life. In Līlā Amṛt, you will read a story about how Mahāprabhujī liberated a snake. It is not a fairy tale; it was real. All that I am telling you is not a fairy tale but reality. The life of a snake is not easy, and no one accepts it. Everyone is scared; no creature likes it. These qualities can be found in anyone. When bamboo grows somewhere in the forest, the entire forest is troubled. The whole forest receives information about the birth of new plants: who is born? Which seed has sprouted? Just as we inform people of a newborn child and offer congratulations, so too does all of creation communicate. When bamboo sprouts from the earth, the entire forest is unhappy. When bamboo grows on a tree, the whole forest trembles with unhappiness. As the poem says: when bamboo emerges, the whole earth shudders in fear and unhappiness, thinking, "Our destruction has been born." Someone might ask, "What do you mean? Bamboo is beautiful, bamboo is nice." The forest replies, "A day will come when it will burn all of us; it will be the cause of the fire, the cause of our burning." This means bamboo possesses certain qualities that are not good. With a little movement or rubbing, it creates fire, and then the whole mountain or forest burns. Often, bamboo is the cause of fire in big hills and dry areas. Second, bamboo is so hard that it cannot absorb the fragrance of any other plant. Third, inside its knots, nothing passes through. This "fire" symbolizes anger. If someone tells you something, you become angry—a volcano erupts. It burns everyone, and you do not listen to or accept others' advice because your ego is so hard and strong. It is senseless to talk and explain. Even if something enters your ears, inside are the knots of your complexes, so nothing penetrates. Thus, bamboo is a symbolic seed; there are people like this. Bamboo symbolically represents such people. Thorny trees and weeds are very hard to get rid of, while good trees and fruit-bearing trees are very hard to plant and cultivate. As a yogī, a practitioner of mantra who listens to satsaṅg and Guruvākya, we should root out all the thorns and weeds within. This is what it means to be a yogī: to practice mantras, to listen to satsaṅg—it means to get rid of all these sins and impurities. There is a bhajan by Śrī Maṅgilāljī that says: "Tan kī chetī sāf karāo bhī, Oṃ kā bōnā hai." Purify the field of your body, your heart, because you must sow the seed of Oṃ within it. Śrī Maṅgilāljī says in one bhajan: "Clean your inner field, prepare it, for you must sow the seed of Oṃ." It is a blessing; the word of Gurujī is a blessing. Both the Guruvākya and the practice are blessings. Normally, we think we are not jealous, not angry, that we love everyone and are very good people. But when reality strikes, your reaction does not wait for your good intentions. It is immediate, like a red cloth before a bull. You may like everyone very much except one person. You feel very happy, relaxed, and positive. But when that one person appears, everything within you is erased, and you become like a spoiled apple. This shows we are still very far from our spirituality, our mokṣa, our liberation, our blessing. How can Gurudev bestow a blessing upon you? He fills you from above, but you leak from below. This applies not only to your spiritual life but to your normal life as well. You know that everyone is frustrated, completely fed up with life. We know money cannot make you happy, for money cannot love you, and you cannot eat money. Therefore, it is something else that makes you holy, free, and divine. No one is against you, but you are against yourself. Because you are against yourself, you think someone else is against you, and that is why you feel that way. Recording location: Hungary, Vep, Summer Workshop